STOP! DON'T SUE!! I don't own Inuyasha or any of its characters. Long live Rumiko Takahashi!

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A dream. A terrible dream...

He could still feel the pinpricks of sweat between his shoulder blades as his awareness seeped back.

There had been news of a giant snake that terrorized a village to the north. They'd followed the rumor to another ruined town, and a demon with a round shard gleaming like a lurid eye above its fangs. They'd fought. They'd found it.

Only they hadn't been first.

"Foolish Inuyasha. Why defeat the snake demon when you so kindly do it for me?" he shuddered at Naraku's voice in his brain. Just a dream. He flexed his forearm against the ground, shifting his weight to sit up.

The puppet had smiled its bare, corner-twisting smile, eyes twitching lazily behind the baboon to set on the young priestess. Inuyasha had turned his head long enough to see Kagome's knuckles go white against her bow. Something's coming. The monk muttered a warning.

A growl had built in his throat as Naraku spoke again, "And why defeat you when there are other ways?"

Not another sound. Not another flickered grin. Only motion. The demon's arm had sprung forward, throwing something green and blazing through the air. Kagome had been ready, but she would never be fast enough. He remembered his hands going flat against her shoulders. He'd meant to knock her down, out of the way...

He remembered the feel of her shirt against his palms, of the seething magic against his spine as the eerie green light had seared right through his fire-rat armor and sealed itself around them both.

Her eyes had glazed even has he'd felt her hand jump to his face. She choked something that might have been his name and then-

He was waking up; it didn't matter. Like all his childhood nightmares, the fear and the faces would all be gone before the sun was high. The real world held enough of those things.

Inuyasha braced his sore forearms against the floor and raised his head, inhaling deeply.

And blinked.

"The hell?!"

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Kagome yawned. The alarm hadn't gone off, but with her luck, it'd be blazing away at any minute for her to go to school. She smiled without opening her eyes. As much as she'd scolded Inuyasha for destroying her clock that one time, the thought of his iron claws ripping through the snooze alarm had been very satisfying. Reluctantly, she stretched her neck against the blankets and pushed herself upright. She still had to shower, get breakfast, make sure her books were all in order and-

"The hell?!"

Kagome eeped and came face to face with a pair of unfamiliar gold eyes. Three things came crashing home all at once: This wasn't her room, this wasn't her bed, and there was a strange boy leaning over it.

She winced as strong fingers clamped painfully on her upper arm. "Who are you and how the hell did I get here?" he demanded in a growl. Kagome's mouth fell open as she tried to answer. The boy's brow furrowed behind his white bangs as he brought his other hand in front of his face, staring hard at the nails. "And what the fuck did you do to me?" he demanded.

"I don't- I..." her voice faltered. The way he was looking at his hand was very familiar, like he expected to see something else there. Something clicked in Kagome's mind as she realized that it really reminded her of-

Kagome nodded and reached up toward Inuyasha's face. They were the same round cheeks, the same nose, but... There was something she just couldn't put her finger on. Even his eyes seemed different, and that was the least of it. Short white hair slipped through her fingers as she traced the barely-pointed human ears. And he was skinnier. Almost new moon-skinnier.

His skin seemed different too, a bit redder. Inuyasha usually only got this red when something happened to make him blush, and-

Kagome snatched her hands back, murmuring an apology. Inuyasha's voice was low, but she was sure there was a "Keh!" in there somewhere.

She cast her eyes around the room, the queasy feeling in her stomach growing with every breath. She'd never seen this place before. Heck, she'd never seen someplace like this place before.

There were no windows, and the walls were made of some thick white substance that she didn't recognize. She realized with another sinking feeling that the mattress she'd been sleeping on didn't feel like springs or hollowfill or anything either. Even the quilt she was hugging to her knees crinkled and shifted in ways that set her teeth on edge. The narrow room arched up toward a low ceiling, giving Kagome the uneasy sensation of being inside a giant foam bubble, except...

Except there were drawings and scraps of colored cloth fixed to the wall in places, and a hairbrush sitting on a shelf next to some weird colored bottles or sculptures or sleeping beetles that had to be... well, she had no idea, but it seemed to Kagome that surely someone actually lived in this room.

Her eyes fell on blocky silver object against the far wall that looked like it might be anything from a chest of drawers to atom bomb. ...but it would do.

"Over there," she nodded to - she swallowed - to Inuyasha, giving his sleeve a tug. She watched him carefully as he drew close enough to see his reflection.

"The fuck?"

Kagome watched as Inuyasha opened his mouth and traced a finger along a spiky white edge. At least the fangs were still there.

And then there were the clothes. She was sure that Inuyasha had never worn clothes like that - it looked like a cross between blue jeans and Sango's scale armor, reaching from his ankles to his neck.

"How do you feel?" she asked. "Do you feel like you do when you're-"

"Human?" he shook his head. "Kinda'," he answered. "It's all messed up. What the hell happened to us Kagome?" he asked.

Us. Kagome swallowed hard and put a hand to the side of her head. Round ears. For some reason, that only brought her so much relief. She scooted out of the bed and over to Inuyasha. A girl with black hair looked back at her from the metal. She turned her head one way and then the other. It wasn't quite her own face, but at least everything was still attached at the same places.

Kagome suppressed a shudder. "What's the last thing you remember?"

His voice dropped to a growl.

"I remember Naraku."

"That light..."

"He was aiming for you."

"You saved me," she put a hand on his shoulder.

He looked away, right hand fisting against his leg. "Yeah. Great job I did too."

Kagome just tightened her fingers against his arm, "We're not dead, Inuyasha," she reminded him.

But then, Kagome set her eyes on the worried stranger in the mirror.

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Both positive and negative criticisms are welcome. No flames unless they're really creative.